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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, July 2, 1986
Turn off the glitz
Fourth of July celebrations of days gone by, as described in Ted Kennedy's column (this page), sound dull and dusty compared with the extravaganza planned for New York this weekend.
But the centennial and rededication of the Statue of Liberty are being exploited in every way imaginable by New York hucksters. Plus, a package of glitzy entertainment has been sold for $10 million to ABC to be beamed at the rest of us who won't be there to buy something.
For those who don't wish to be part of ABC's audience, who don't want to feel bought and paid for, there's an alternative.
Local celebrations of the Fourth have made a comeback in recent years, and Lawrence is a fine example. We can enjoy three days of fellowship.
festivities and entertainment in Burcham Park along the Kansas River. All we have to do is get up from our TVs and go.
Sure, the Declaration of Independence and the Statue of Liberty are national symbols, but what good is a televised spirit of national unity if we don't know and trust our neighbors?
The real spirit of unity comes from knowing the people around us. One way to develop that unity is to celebrate together, as communities, not as a nation of TV viewers.
Our ancestors knew the value of local celebrations and the people who planned Lawrence's Independence Days are trying to keep that local spirit alive. Don't let national television buy it away from us.
Saving the depot
the historic Union Pacific railroad depot could be a beautiful and useful centerpiece for riverfront celebrations such as Lawrence's Independence Days.
The Kansas crew team has been working with a citizens group, the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, for a year to save the old depot, which will be demolished if not moved from alongside the tracks in North Lawrence.
city hall, and surround it with a seven-acre park.
The two groups call themselves the Save the Depot Task Force. They plan to move the rock depot to the south bank of the river, just east of
The move and restoration would cost $500,000. So far, the task force has collected only about $3,000.
The project deserves better support. It could benefit far more than the crew team and the people concerned about preservation.
The riverfront is a wasted resource in Lawrence. If the city is serious about downtown development, it would do well to develop the riverfront instead of some resort project out at Clinton Lake.
Insuring the Fourth
Four Kansas cities — Emporia, Concordia, Prairie Village and Lyndon — won't have fireworks shows this weekend. For them, Fourth of July enthusiasm came at too high a premium — a liability insurance premium, that is.
As every business operator and city official has known for some time, the cost of liability insurance is skyrocketing. In some cases, insurance isn't available at any price. Many are insuring themselves or just going without.
Paramedics from Topeka who respond to rural emergencies are no longer allowed to ride with victims when rural ambulances transport them to hospitals. And anyone who paid attention to the medical malpractice debate in the Kansas Legislature this year heard evidence that general practitioners in rural areas were about to stop delivering babies because of high premiums.
The loss of patriotic celebrations is regrettable, but there are worse losses. For example, Cessna Aircraft of Wichita attributes much of the decline in sales of small planes and the company's layoff of hundreds of workers to the high cost of insuring small planes.
Next year the Legislature must tackle general liability insurance with the same determination that it showed on medical malpractice.
But that determination can't be blind. So far, the Legislature has pointed all of its efforts toward reducing the number and size of court awards to victims. Punitive awards, awards for pain and suffering and awards for real damages have all been capped in medical malpractice cases.
In the meantime, however, Congress' General Accounting Office and several consumer advocates have stepped forward with evidence that insurance companies are charging much higher premiums than necessary to recoup their losses.
The Legislature must act next year, after it investigates both sides. Actuary tables shouldn't be canceled fireworks displays. More important, actuary tables shouldn't be stifling businesses and making life-and-death decisions in emergencies.
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News staff
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Guns saluted Lawrence's first Fourth
Patriotic celebrations are as American as grandma's apple pie. Note grandma's; mom's could be microwaved.
Million are expected in New York this week for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty and the 210th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The carefully planned activities prove again that Americans love a patriotic celebration.
This would have been no surprise to early Lawrence residents. The first 4th of July celebration in Lawrence was a big one. It was an all-day and -evening affair in Pinkney Woods, near Pinkney School.
During the night of July 3, the Lawrence "boys" spent all night in preparation for the giant celebration. The school was filled in the morning of July 4, 1855.
The earliest arrivals were local Indians — the Shawnee, the daeware and a few Kwans. They were joined by Kansans who were mostly first- and
Ted Kennedy
Guest columnist
second-generation immigrants. Especially proud of their ancestral roots were those in Lawrence from Germany and Scandinavia.
Douglas County homeheadeds rolled in by the dozens. The two largest contingents came from the village of Franklin to the east. This group arrived in covered wagons with the largest wagon displaying a huge American flag. From the south, three other wagons, by oxen forged the Wakarusa River. These wagons were decorated with red, white and blue bunting.
When the crowd had gathered, the Reverend Spyder offered a prayer. Eight years later he was the first victim of the Quantrill Raid.
Two Indian chiefs spoke to the crowd. One spoke in Indian and one in English. All of the local politicians had their say, too.
The celebration was long. It lasted from 11 p.m. July 3 to midnight July 4.
But the celebration for the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1876, was bigger. Everyone in Lawrence able to walk or ride came to Pinkney Woods.
As Americans always do, the town formed a committee to plan the celebration. It was called the Western Centennial Sports Committee. The committee was composed of young men who said they intended to properly and gloriously prepare for the Republic to be 100 years old.
The WCSC applied to Mayor Luddington for the use of the city cannon and got his quick approval.
The committee raised $15 for the celebration, which included a sunrise salute on Mount Oread, the ringing of church and school bells for half an hour, singing, a parade, a brass band and a dozen orators.
The parade of citizens on foot and in carriages marched to Haskell
Grove. The band opened the program. Two prayers followed. Professor Carries read the Declaration of Independence. Song proceeded oration and then the crowd enjoyed basket lunches and games during the
After the break, the crowd settled down to listen to singing and then a lengthy address by the Honorable Spencer G. Cromwell ended with a prayer and band music.
n this year, 4th of July BIG-BUCK MANIA has hit New York. Scalpers are selling good seats for the unveiling of the restored statue. ABC TV has bought the right to television the event. Smart operators are selling everything — seats, pieces of the statue and phony medallions.
Patriotic celebrations are *i* as American as gram's apple pie. But the will New York folks make is happy as $15 celebration here July 4, 1876?
Kennedy, a retired dentist, lives near Lawrence on the land his great grandmother settled in 1855
Government hasn't slashed student aid
Recently, the U.S. Senate gave its approval to re-authorization of the Higher Education Act, an action that will make billions for past secondary education.
Editor's note: The reduction in total spending authorization that Sen. Dole refers to in this column amounted to $2 billion.
Included in the re-authorization were new funding levels for federal financial aid programs for students. Such aid would focus on those students who demonstrate the need for it; funds would be targeted to those who can prove the need. The action served as a fundamental statement in support of education in our country.
So I was disappointed to read, shortly after the Senate acted, a newspaper's headline that said, "the OKS less money for student grants."
That headline did not accurately or fairly represent the Senate's action. It did, unfortunately, serve to
Sen. Bob Dole
Guest columnist
perpetuate the falsehood that the federal government is slashing financial aid for our students.
in tract, what the Senate did was to give approval to higher levels of aid for individual students. To wit:
Pell grants would be increased from $2,100 a student to $3,100 over the next five years
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants would be increased from $2,000 a student to $3,000 — a 50 percent increase
*Limits on Guaranteed Student Loans would be increased from $2,500 to $3,000 for freshmen and sophomores or $4,000 for juniors and seniors, and from $5,000 for graduate students, and $7,000 the first increase in 17 years.
National Direct Student Loan limits would be increased from a
$1,500 to $2,000 - a 25 percent increase
These are substantial increases in the amount of financial aid that would be available to individual students who are eligible.
It is true that the legislation tightens eligibility requirements so that only those who demonstrate real need would qualify for aid. As a result, the total spending, authorizations level is lower than in previous years.
The need for redefining eligibility has been clearly established. Between 1978 and 1981, eligibility for the guaranteed loan program had been so expanded and benefits made so generous that, regardless of family income, any student could participate. During that period, the median income of participating students' families rose by 41 percent.
In 1980 and 1981, the federal government offered a total of $135 million in aid to more than 122,000 Kansas college students. The
average amount for each student was $1,102. Now, the total has risen to $220 million, with more than 135,000 students receiving an average $1,625
In these times of large deficits and never-ending horror stories about the abuses of student financial aid programs (such as rich parents using their child's low interest student loan to invest in high interest bonds or expensive stereo systems) we are sure the allocation of our resources so that only those who are in true need get the help and the education they deserve.
At least in Kansas, as the numbers indicate, more students are receiving more financial aid for their college studies than ever before. Our action in the Senate should make it easier for deserving, but poor, young men and women to get a college education, while still allowing those who can well-afford it to get a college degree.
Mailbox
Contra aid questioned
I've got a trivia question for you. Which of our founding fathers said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"?
Having grown up as an army brat in the so-called postwar era, I learned of the tremendous sacrifice of Americans and allies and axis powers during World War II. It was like a holy trinity in the American way of life: family, church and the big war.
Every time I hear about our president making a plea for aid to the contras, I think he is probably encouraged by those famous words. I know I was at 2 a.m. when I got up to write this letter.
Later I learned that our great country with all its resources had been limping along before fascism began spilling over the borders of Europe and Asia in great waves. The fact that Americans sacrificed and came out a great success both at home and abroad may have given us a greater respect for war than we care to admit.
while we were able to set things
straight with much of the world in World War II, the politics of war and our objective understanding of the world have not worked as well since. During the postwar years the U.S. government charged millions of dollars to the French struggling to control a revolution for independence that had been secured; government had supplied arms to these very same revolutionists during the war because at that time they were fighting the Japanese.
The American advisers who understood the cultural and economic problems of Southeast Asia were not valued. Instead, the early 1950s saw the political advance of people who said communism is only a theory that has no objective value in Southeast Asia shows no evidence that the military solutions that worked so well in World War II can be transferred to the present.
Bill Jewell Lawrence
Now we have another president who wants U.S. citizens to finance a war against communism Ronald Reagan says this is not another Vietnam. Is he telling us that Nicaragua can be hammered into a democracy by the guns of war? The history of
Vietnam says no. I think our country will promote democracy better by sending 2,000 exchange students to Vietnam or sending rather than 2,000 of ammunition.
Yes, vote on abortion
Christian, how can you be so stupid? You claim that women are forced to incubate babies against their will (Kansan, June 25). How do you think they got pregnant in the first place?
Abortion is the murder of humans, regardless of the semantics you choose to apply to the subject. You claim that anti-abortionists are spreading violence with their tactics. What do you call pulling heads and
We are not talking about malaria or the common cold. Excluding the less than 1 percent of women who become pregnant because of rape or incest, women become pregnant because they have sex with men. It doesn't just happen without provocation.
torsos out of a womb? Non-violence?
torsor out of a womb? Non-violence?
I deplore the bombing of clinics
The end is near.
I reagree with the heinousness of
the crime or act. But you will deny me
the only other option I can use
to voice my opinion — the voting booth.
You can bet that I will vote against a candidate who favors abortion. That is not mockery of the democratic process, as you claim. It is my informed choice about whether a politician represents my interest.
The courts are closed to me, violence is out and the media are undeniably pro-abortion. Give me a right to take away my right to vote, too.
Tim Erickson Lawrence
Don't vote on abortion
how reductionist and shortsighted to suggest "an abortion election" for 1988 (Kansan, June 18). Among the faces facing America, the legal taking ofObama's nomination as a sheriff should hardly be held out as a primary motivation.
B. Crawley Lawrence
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